Three Years Later - Where Are the Nineveh Plains Christians?

On August 6, 2014, after an attack on Yazidis in Sinjar, Daesh came after Christians in Nineveh Plains. Over night, Daesh captured 13 villages and forced thousands of Christians to flee their homes leaving their lives behind and walking towards an uncertain future in Kurdistan. They did not take much with them as they hoped that they would be able to return after a few days. This hope began to perish when days turned into weeks, months and years.

The thousands of Iraqi Christians found themselves in Kurdistan, mostly Ankawa, a Christian friendly district of Erbil. Kurdistan was not adequately prepared for the thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) arriving at once. The IDPs turned to churches for help. They found refuge in churches, church courtyards, parks, and streets - homeless but safer than in the hands of Daesh.

A member of the Nineveh Plain Protection Units walks in a burnt house in Qaraqosh, a town which lies some 30 kilometres east of the northern city of Mosul, on March 3, 2017. (Photo credit: ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images)

As the situation progressed and Daesh continued to rule over Nineveh Plains, tents and temporary accommodation were provided for some IDPs. Some people were also moved from the churches to a construction site of a shopping mall before IDPs camps were up and running.

Today, three years later, most of the Nineveh Plains is liberated from Daesh. However, Daesh left the area in rubble. Villages and towns were mostly and destroyed and will need to be rebuilt before people return to them. This is a venture that will require significant funding. In early 2017, Aid to the Church in Need assessed the cost of reconstruction at over $200 million.

Once the area is rebuilt, Iraqi Christians will then be able to return to their homes. Whether they would want to return, is a different question. As Nineveh Plains remains a ghost area (with some minor exceptions of early rebuilding attempts), the question is: where are the thousands of Iraqi Christians from Nineveh Plains?

Kurdistan

Many Iraqi Christians are still in Kurdistan as IDPs. There are currently four IDP camps in Erbil providence. Early March 2017, Rudaw reported that all four IDP camps are at maximum capacity and cannot take more IDPs fleeing Mosul. The IDPs live there in small metal container houses. The camps are overcrowded and cramped. There is no heating for the cold Iraqi winters and no air conditioning or fans for the hot summer days. There is not much hope in the camps. However, the majority of the people that remained in Kurdistan still believe that they will be able to return to their homes. They all know that resettling to different countries is very difficult after hearing stories of other Iraqi Christians stuck in Jordan or Lebanon with nowhere to go.

Jordan

Many Iraqi Christians left Iraq for Lebanon or Jordan after their exile from Nineveh Plains. In Jordan, Iraqi Christians do not live in camps. The four big camps in Jordan, including the media’s favourite camp, Za’atari, which is for Syrians only. Also, officially, there are no religious minorities in the camps, neither from Syria nor Iraq. Iraqi Christians live in private accommodation often heavily subsidised by local churches and humanitarian organisations.

Iraqi Christians in Jordan are grateful to Jordan for opening the doors to so many of them. However, their life is not easy. Iraqi Christians are perceived as visitors and their route to be recognised as refugees is a long and difficult path. Iraqi refugees, contrary to Syrian refugees, cannot work. After the Supporting Syria Conference in London in February 2016, Jordan pledged to grant 200,000 work permits to Syrian refugees. Iraqi refugees were not included in that promise. Without work, Iraqi Christians living in Jordan do not have any prospects of starting a new life. They are frozen in time awaiting resettlement. The majority of them do not want to return to Iraq as they have lost hope that Iraq will ever be safe for Christians again. They believe that after Daesh, there would be yet another oppressor who would abuse the internal instability to prosecute minorities.

A member of the Nineveh Plain Protection Units walks in a burnt house in Qaraqosh, a town which lies some 30 kilometres east of the northern city of Mosul, on March 3, 2017. (Photo credit: ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images)

Lebanon

As in the case of Jordan, Iraqi Christians in Lebanon live in private accommodations. The situation of refugees in Lebanon is dire. In Lebanon, the status of refugees is not recognised. This severely affects the lives of the people that count on that recognition. Children born to refugees in Jordan are stateless as they cannot be registered in Lebanon. Without being registered and having any ID, they cannot travel with their parents. There is no access to free education or other government services. The issue of trafficking in persons, in particular for forced labour or modern slavery is of extreme concern.

The Rest of the World

Generally speaking, Iraqi Christians from Nineveh Plains face difficulties in being granted refugee status and being allowed to resettle. However, some Iraqi Christian refugees from Nineveh Plains managed to relocate to the US, Canada, Australia and other parts of the world. Nonetheless, the number of resettled Iraqi Christians remains very low.

What Will Happen to Nineveh Plains?

The Nineveh Plains needs to be rebuilt. The villages and towns need to see Iraqi Christians returning to the region to flourish and return to the pre-Daesh state. Iraqi Christians who were forced to flee Nineveh Plains in August 2014 have the right to return home. This right is protected under international and Iraqi domestic law. However, this right currently means nothing (with a few exceptions) as there is no place to return to.

The challenges faced by Iraqi Christians may be summarised in two main points.

First, most of Nineveh Plains is still waiting to be rebuilt. According to a report by Aid to the Church in Need, in nine Nineveh Plains towns over 12,000 houses were vandalised by Daesh. The cost of rebuilding the towns is more than $200 million. As the reconstruction works are under way, Teleskof became a home to over 430 families. Qaraqosh, the biggest Christian town in Nineveh Pains is currently being rebuilt too. This will be an enormous, but a crucial project.

Second, with ongoing reconstruction, security remains a serious concern. For people to return, Nineveh Plains requires physical protection to ensure that the events of August 2014 never happen again. The security that is needed is not only the physical protection of the area and the people but also protection of the rights of all Iraqi Christians. The rights of Iraqi Christians must be adequately protected by domestic provisions, for example, a protection of the right to freedom of religion or belief of all (including the exercise of the right), freedom from discrimination based on religious grounds and protection of the group as a minority.

Rebuilding the Nineveh Plains is more complicated than the two points above. However, this is the very minimum that needs to occur to ensure that Iraqi Christians return to their homes. This is the minimum that is required to make sure that Christianity is preserved in the cradle.

Ewelina U. Ochab is a human rights advocate and author of the book “Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East.”